Although scientists said it was probably a comet and blamed its trajectory on a natural process, we have been unable to unequivocally prove that it wasn’t an alien spacecraft or some other piece of extraterrestrial technology.

A view of humanity’s beautiful home (Picture: Nasa)

Now Harvard University’s Abraham Loeb, one of the astronomers who suggested ‘Oumuamua was alien in origin, and his colleague Amir Siraj have published a paper which suggests evidence which proves the existence of other lifeforms could be lurking right under our species’ nose.

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The paper claims there could be ‘tens’ of interstellar visitors like ‘Oumuamua floating through the solar system.

‘Observing or visiting such objects could allow searching for signs of extraterrestrial life locally, without the need to send interstellar probes,’ the pair wrote.

‘Exploration of trapped interstellar objects could potentially help reveal the prospects of life in other star systems as well as extraterrestrial artefacts,’ they added.

It’s important to remember that Loeb and his partner are not saying that interstellar visitors are definitely alien artefacts. The objects could also have formed naturally in other star systems, before being expelled to begin their lonely journey through the void of space.

Could this be an alien space probe? Asteroid ‘Oumuamua is still provoking debate about its origins (Picture Getty)

‘Photographing or visiting these trapped objects would allow for learning about the conditions in other planetary systems, saving the need to send interstellar probes,’ the astronomers added.

In a previous paper, Shmuel Bialy and Abraham Loeb suggested the elongated asteroid ‘Oumuamua might have an ‘artificial origin’.

‘‘Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilisation,’ they wrote.

Initially, the fact ‘Oumuamua appeared to speed up led astronomers to suggest it was a comet. These icy objects accelerate due to a process called outgassing, in which the sun heats up a comet and causes it to release gases.

But in their paper, the Harvard stargazers ruled out the possibility it was an active comet.

They proposed that it was powered along by ‘solar radiation pressure’ produced by the sun, but went on to make more ‘exotic’ suggestions to explain its acceleration.